1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to services provided by web phone system, and in particular, to a call forwarding method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the World Wide Web is used for information exchange using e-mails or relatively simple chatting programs, and recently, more people have been using a web phone for voice communication with another party over the Internet. The web phone is a terminal through which a person, besides making phone calls, can connect to the Internet through a phone interface like phone line, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), and ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) or packet network like LAN (Local Area Network) and get services including information search, e-mail and so forth. These Internet phones and web phones work on the basis of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) that is a support system capable of loading not only data but also voice by using IP (Internet Protocol), the level protocol of Internet network.
Phone communication through the Internet network allows people to make long distance calls like international calls only at the charge of local phone calls. This economic advantage accelerates the commercial use of the web phone. U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,126 to Hallenstål, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVE CALL FORWARDING, issued on Sep. 26, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,320 to Creamer et al., entitled ACCESS TO EXTENDED TELEPHONE SER VICES VIA THE INTERNET, issued on Apr. 30, 2002 and PCT publication No. WO 01/39478 A1 to Joung, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSMITTING COMMUNICATION SIGNALS THROUGH INTERNET AND A PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK, published on May 31, 2001 contemplate call forwarding using internet phones or web phones. However, what is needed is a user friendly call forwarding method for calls placed to web and internet phones that 1) check to see if the internet phone has the call forwarding feature activated, 2) check whether it is at a time of day and on a day where call forwarding is activated, 3) check whether automatic or selective call forwarding mode is set, 4) enables the calling party to specify the route and the destination where the call is to be forwarded when in selective call forwarding mode, 5) provides visual displays and audio announcements to the calling party to guide the calling party through the call forwarding process and 6) determines if ring signals generated are greater than a predetermined frequency.